


Angels Change Too

by Huggle



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Dark Gabriel, Drowning, Episode: s05e08 Changing Channels, Gen, Imprisonment, Restraints
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-25
Updated: 2016-04-25
Packaged: 2018-06-04 09:49:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6653032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huggle/pseuds/Huggle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel can't help but be relieved to find his older brother has survived.  Despite the games he's playing with him, with the Winchesters, Gabriel will surely help them stop the Apocalypse and save everyone.</p><p>But this is not the Gabriel that Castiel remembers.  Unfortunately for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Angels Change Too

**Author's Note:**

> So, another one dragged from the dusty old archive of my fics from six or so years ago. Since Gabriel was snatching scenes from other TV shows, I did the same. Still creeps me out a little, both the scene and Gabriel. I'm glad he turned out ok in the show but he went a lot darker here.

Castiel jerked as he opened his eyes, taking in his shadowed surroundings. Gabriel had sent him somewhere different this time, and he tried to ignore the sharp ache at the thought his brother – their beloved Gabriel – was not only alive but had been here for sometime. Hiding from them.

His continued existence was a cause for celebration, especially when Castiel had discovered him at a time when his support was desperately needed. But he had sent Castiel here, into what new danger he had yet to discover.

He was sitting in a metal chair, his wrists and ankles cuffed to it. He glared down at the restraints. Where this anywhere outside of Gabriel’s creation, he could have snapped them easily and freed himself. But here, it was different. He tugged forcefully at the metal bands, but they held. 

Castiel resigned himself to having to escape this by waiting for an opportunity to do so, but panic was rising in him. Would it be like this to live as a human? Caught and made helpless so easily, unable to protect himself? He took a breath, tried to calm himself down. If it were Dean.... He closed his eyes, unable to dispel the fear over what was happening to the brothers while he was trapped here.

Perhaps they were able to free themselves. They might be miles away by now, safe. But knowing Gabriel’s power, Castiel doubted it.

If Dean were here.... Castiel forced himself to look around the room. Its purpose was unclear. He could make out a few metal tables, wide and sterile looking. There were pipes overhead, one open ended. Every few minutes a large bead of water would plop to the floor below.

There was also someone watching him from the shadows.

Castiel tensed. How could he not have noticed? The man came forward, and Castiel flinched, expecting Zachariah despite himself. But it wasn’t. Castiel didn’t know this man, and he felt like another of Gabriel’s creations.

“Where is it?” the man asked.

Castiel stared at him in puzzlement. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“You will tell me. It’s just a question of how quickly. It’s not going to be pleasant.”

Castiel heard movement behind him, and a second man appeared at the edge of his vision. Again, he had failed to realise he was not alone. Gabriel had, as Dean would have put it, really ‘done a number on him’. 

The man held something in his hands. It was a mask of some sort, with thick rubber bands strapped to the back. The front was mostly clear, and the end was attached to a long rubber hose.

Castiel watched anxiously as the men worked together to attach the end of the hose to the open pipe. Under other circumstances, he would not have been concerned. But here he could be hurt by these _humans_ , and these men did not seem to mean him well.

“Wait,” he commanded, desperate but unsurprised when they ignored him. “Do you know that neither of you are real? You are fabrications. Creations of my brother.”

The bigger of the men turned back and advanced on him, the mask held out in front. Castiel wrenched at the restraints. They had connected it to the water supply. 

“My brother has made all of you. When he is tired of this game, he will simply un-make you. Gabriel. Gabriel!”

The man forced the mask over his face, and Castiel heard the clanking sound of a chain being pulled.

Water flooded the mask, striking him hard in the face. In seconds the mask had filled, and he thrashed helplessly in the chair. Perhaps in angel form, he did not need to breath, but his vessel did and Castiel struggled to fight its reflex to inhale and draw the water deep into its lungs.

He fought as hard as he could, felt his skin tear beneath the manacles, but he could not break free. He thought to Gabriel, almost pleading, why? Why was the brother he’d looked up to, learned from, mourned, now torturing him in this way? If spending so long among humans had tainted Gabriel to this level, what hope was there left?

The mask was torn away, and Castiel coughed violently, vomiting the water that had found its way into him.

“Like I said,” the first man told him. “If you just tell me where it is, then this can all end.”

Castiel’s head sagged forward. His chest hurt, his wrists and shoulders hurt from the effort of fighting the restraints and drawing in as much air as he could. His clothes were soaked through and he shivered mightily. “I cannot tell you what I don’t know. None of this is real. That will include whatever you believe you are looking for.”

The big man grabbed his hair and wrenched his head back, forcing him to sit up and look at his superior.

“You know what? I believe you,” he said. “I think you’re telling the truth. So we can stop questioning you about it.”

Castiel watched him, cautiously. The man didn’t believe him about Gabriel. It was as though he hadn’t heard anything Castiel said about the archangel. But there was something in his tone....

The mask was forced back on, and through the stream of water, Castiel could see the smaller man just walking away, leaving him to drown.

He glanced at the bigger man, left behind to make sure he did in fact die. He looked for some hint of mercy there, but there was none. This man would do as directed, and Castiel panicked at the growing pressure in his chest. Could he die here? He could certainly suffer, but could any of these things actually put an end to him?

 _Gabriel. Gabriel, why are you doing this_?

He took a breath, unable to stop it, and it felt like inhaling acid. He jerked as his lungs filled, knowing that he would soon learn if death here was a possibility. But despite the burning agony in his chest, he didn’t miss the figure that burst out of the shadows, and lunged at the bigger man. There was a brief but violent struggle, which ended with his sudden rescuer standing victorious for a second before he grabbed the mask over Castiel’s face and tore it free.

Castiel flopped forward, held up only by the restraints, and threw up the water he’d inhaled. His throat, his lungs felt raw. His eyes stung and it was several moments before he could actually breathe.

“Dean?” he gasped.

Strong hands pushed him back into the chair and set about undoing the manacles. “Sshh. Saved you. Did you see how awesome I was there?”

Castiel tried to pull away before he was free, and Gabriel leaned over him until their faces were almost touching. “I used to create a damsel in distress, but this is much more fun. It’s almost like...do you remember when Father sent us to clean up Uriel’s little clusterfuck in Cairo? And they grabbed you. Ok, it’s nothing really like that, but I saved you then too. It’s still a lot of fun, Cas.”

“Why...why are you doing this? We searched for you, Gabriel. We searched for millennia. We did not know what became of you.”

Gabriel shoved his hand roughly across Castiel’s mouth. “You don’t get it, do you. This isn’t The Wonder Years. I don’t do nostalgic reminiscences of home, bro. So, now that we’ve done this one...I’ve got something better in mind.”

Before Castiel could protest, Gabriel snapped his fingers, and the room changed again.


End file.
